Seth walked outside after making sure with Ben the minefield was safe. Nicole stood out there on the road behind the Kia, arms crossed, staring out over the mountains at the wall of rain approaching from the west, accompanied by rolling thunder and whiplashes of lightning. Seth walked up behind her.

“Nicole.”

“Seth.”

“Just tell me why.”

Nicole turned to face him. She’d wiped her face, but he could tell there’d been tears in her eyes in the past few minutes. “Because you would have wound up like me.”

Seth sat back against the trunk of the Kia and crossed his arms. “What do you mean?”

“My father was an archaeologist, right? That’s how I lucked into having a phylactery, though activating it was pure luck. But from what Ben’s told me, every phylactery gives a unique set of abilities. One of mine is to sense auras. I can very, very clearly sense the ones that aren’t human. Hunter-33 has some technology that’s similar, and they go after people like that. So while I’m trying to find a way to bring them down, I try and save who I can… And try to bring them over to my cause. To my fight.”

Seth narrowed his eyes, his lips slightly apart in his confusion. “You’re saying…”

“No, Seth. You’re not entirely human. Here.” She tapped a finger to his sternum. “Right at the core of your aura, there’s a signature of something else. Something I’ve never seen before. The kid I mentioned in Missouri? He was born what Ben called a dhampir. A great-great-great-descendant, or more, of a vampire. The Hunters got to him before I could convince him to leave, or he would be here with us right now.”

He looked past her to the approaching storm. “Is that the real reason those gunshots didn’t kill me?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry I lied to you, but I didn’t want you shocked and unmoving. That’s what happened with the Missouri kid. When I revealed who he was to him, he ran from me. He tried to hide from everyone, but he hid from me better than he hid from Hunter-33.” Her lips twisted to the side and down. “He didn’t stand a chance against them. He wasn’t like you, he didn’t even know how to fight. You might have survived on your own for a little. But not him.”

Seth unfolded his arms and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Look. I know what family troubles are like. My family isn’t dead, but my mom abandoned us not too long ago and my dad might as well be absent. He only tries to make up for his absence by stepping in to discipline me when he feels it’s right, and it’s usually a pretty fucked up time for him to do so. So I can only imagine what losing a loving family like that must be like. What’s more is I want to go back and see my friends, my dojo again. I don’t think that can happen unless we stop Hunter-33. So I’ll join you. I’m in. You just have to let me make one call.”

Her sadness turned first to a smile, then a smirk. “Alright. But you’re paying for the SIM card, because you’re destroying the one in that phone after you make that call.”

Thunder clapped, and the storm broke upon the mountainside. Rain swept up the unpaved road and soaked both of them to their skin in half a second. Nicole raised an eyebrow. “Come inside with me?”

Seth nodded. “Yeah. Let’s wait this storm out. I’m not getting reception while this is going.”

The two crossed over the minefield to the front door, both unaware of the horrible path of fate they had just consigned themselves to.

***

Seth snored on the couch, sprawled out with one arm over his eyes to stop the intermittent flashes of lightning from waking him. It didn’t shut out the thunder though, and every time he floated near the top of his dreams on his way back down to deep sleep again-

BOOM!

Seth jolted awake for the sixth time that night, circles already forming under his eyes, his whites already strained and bloodshot. He groaned and forced himself to a seated position. The door to the cabin finished shaking on its hinges as his feet touched the oaken floor of the cabin. Seth stood to his feet and walked to the kitchen, fumbling around in the darkness for a cup.

The light switched on and Nicole leaned against the doorway of the kitchen, wearing only a white tank-top and panties. “Second cabinet.”

Seth blinked against the light, taking half a moment to take Nicole in before going to where directed and grabbing a plastic cup out of the cabinet. He began his routine of gulping down water. After three glasses he set it down on the counter. Nicole’s hand came from behind him to grab it, and she filled it up herself. Raven-black pixie cut hung about her head in tangles, suggesting a lot of tossing and turning on the guest bed.

“No sleep?”

She pointed up as she swallowed her water. Thunder pealed yet again. The kitchen fixtures vibrated. She set her glass down and leaned against the counter, pulling her hair back from her face and running her fingers through it. Seth forced himself to look away from her figure.

“I thought…” She yawned. “I thought that girl wasn’t your girlfriend.”

“She’s not.”

“Then why aren’t you letting yourself look?”

Seth turned slowly back and saw she had an eyebrow raised, her arms still over her head as she tousled her hair. “Then, courtesy, I guess.”

“Courtesy? I’d be a hypocrite, it’s not like I haven’t checked you out, standing here shirtless.” She met his gaze and oh-so-subtly bit her lower lip.

Seth took a step back and Nicole took a step forward. “We’re not sleeping anyways.”

“Didn’t think this was your thing.”

“What did you think was my thing?” They repeated their dance and Seth found himself against the counter behind him.

“Uh, fighting, really seemed like that was it.”

“That’s definitely one of my things.” She stayed where he was, but her eyes roved his body, taking in all that his years of work on the mats had crafted. “Have a couple of others, though.”

Seth looked through the kitchen door and through the living room. Ben’s door remained shut. Thunder rolled again, and the torrent of rain increased, a buzzing ratatat on the roof of the cabin. When he looked back, Nicole had moved a few inches closer. She held her arms behind her now. She looked up at him through her lashes, and Seth felt something stir very low down inside him.

“What are those others, then?”

Nicole bit her lip again and reached out with her left hand, tugging on the waistband of Seth’s jeans. “It changes. Got just one thing on my mind right now, though.” Her hand slid toward the button of his jeans and Seth closed his eyes. The coldness of her fingers brushing gently over the skin of his lower stomach sent waves of goosebumps through his body. He opened his eyes to see her unbutton his pants and undo his zipper. She tugged down his jeans and boxers as she knelt down in front of him in the kitchen and looked up at him with her deep brown eyes.

Her hands moved from the front of his hips to his lower back, electric feeling running through him as her hands traced lines over his body. When her hands reached his lower back, they slid down ever so slightly and tugged him forward to her.

The thunder lulled, and Seth’s ears pricked at a voice he hadn’t heard before outside the house.

“Breaching.”

A roar filled their ears and it wasn’t thunder. Seth snatched his pants up off the ground as the front door blew across the living room. His ears began ringing again. Nicole was up in a flash, snatching a cooking knife from the drawer and charging through the door. Seth did the same, staying right behind her. Nicole ran sideways, arm cocked back. She threw and dove across the living room into the guest bedroom.

Seth entered the living room. A Hunter in full body armor, complete with a high-cut helmet and ballistic face guard, leaned against the wall, gripping the knife embedded in his shoulder. Seth threw his, but it went wide and impacted handle-first into the wall. Seth dove as three barrels raised at him.

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

Silenced gunshots shredded the far wall of the living room and Seth rounded the corner into the guest bedroom. Nicole slammed the door shut behind him. She already had her shoes and jeans on, and a gun in her hand. She racked the slide, chambering a round. “You pound on that wall until Ben wakes up. He’s a heavy sleeper.”

She pointed at the wall that the guest bedroom and Ben’s room shared. Seth moved over and began pounding on it, yelling for Ben to wake up as Nicole popped open the door and fired off a hammer pair of shots. The dull smack of bullets absorbed by ballistic plates resounded and Nicole leaned away from the door as return fire punched holes in the wall. Seth ducked.

“WAKE THE ACTUAL FUCK UP, YOU SLEEPY MOTHERFUCKER!”

Everything went pitch black, blacker than pitch black. Seth lost any sense of orientation.

Outside he heard one of the Hunters speak. “Nods down, boys.”

“Wait, why can’t we see?”

“Oh, fu-”

There was a wet splat followed by six thuds. Thunder pealed again and light returned to the rooms. Seth and Nicole peered out of the door to see Ben in his boxers standing over the bodies of six decapitated Hunters. A brown leather satchel hung from his shoulder and he held a short rowan-wood staff with what looked like a glowing violet egg atop it. The acrid smell of sulfur filled the room.

“Stay off my property, you bloody pricks,” growled Ben. He looked over at Nicole and Seth. “We need to leave. Now. My car, not that probably stolen thing out there. In fact. Here.” He reached into his satchel and tossed a piece of chalk to Nicole. “I showed you the runes on my mines, yes? Mark it on the hood of your car. Rain won’t stop that from marking. Grab your things and go, I’ll be out in two minutes, we probably had four more before the rest of these bastards show up, this was just a fireteam.”

Seth nodded and stepped over a body to snatch his shoes out of the way of a pool of blood and throw them on along with his shirt.

“Think fast, brother.” Said Ben.

Seth snatched a dark drown leather jacket out of the air.

“And again.”

A belt came flying at him. He caught it. Heavy. A drop-holster with a gun and two magazines hung from it.

“She’s condition three. It’s got no safety. Rack it once to chamber a round, point, shoot. Now go!” Ben darted back into his room. Seth threw the jacket on and strapped the belt around his waist, curious why it fit perfectly on the first go, but not questioning as he strapped the holster around his right leg and ran out the door. Nicole stood in the downpour, scrawling a rune in white chalk over the hood of their car. The rain should have wiped it off instantly, but whatever this chalk was made of clung to the surface and refused to let go.

Nicole looked at the gun on his right leg. “Good. You’re going to need that tonight if my gut is anything close to right.”

Far out over the mountain range, lightning flashed down, forking two ways and impacting a distant peak. Not as distant as it looked though, thunder boomed only several seconds later.

An engine revved behind them and they turned to see Ben in the front seat of a bright yellow clothtop jeep. It looked like it belonged on the set of Jurassic Park. He leaned out, staff in hand, and tapped the end of it against the paint. It turned matte black. “Don’t just stare, get in,” he shouted about the rain and thunder. “I’m blowing this place in ten seconds.”

Seth and Nicole bolted, Nicole grabbing shotgun and Seth swinging into the back. Ben laid the staff across the dashboard and moved the shifter. “Hold on.”

The Jeep surged forward past the Kia. Five seconds down the road, an explosion roared behind them. Seth looked over the boxes stacked in the back through the window to see a fireball clawing at the sky.

“Get down!” Shouted Ben.

Incoming gunfire ripped through the windshield and rear window as Seth and Nicole dropped below the height of the dash. Seth peeked up to see them blow past two military Humvees, and two squads of Hunters.

“We’re in for a little chase,” growled Ben. “Buckle in, it’s going to get dodgy.”